Henry A. Wallace

Henry Agard Wallace (7 October 1888-18 November 1965) was Vice President of the United States from 20 January 1941 to 20 January 1945, succeeding John Nance Garner and preceding Harry S. Truman.

Biography
Henry Agard Wallace was born in Orient, Iowa in 1888, the son of Secretary of Agriculture Henry Cantwell Wallace. He obtained a bachelor of science degree at Iowa State College and, as an agricultural expert, he developed varieties of corn which were adopted throughout the USA. In 1932 he entered politics and helped to swing the state of Iowa to the Democratic Party. He became Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of Agriculture, formulating the New Deal agriculture policy through the controversial Agricultural Adjustment Acts of 1933 and 1938 to stabilize prices. In 1940, he was elected Vice President, but was replaced by Harry S. Truman in 1945 since he was considered too left-wing. Instead, he became Secretary of Commerce, and continued in that office under Truman. A visionary liberal, he soon fell out with Truman's Cold War policies, leaving his post in 1946. He moved considerably to the left, exposing himself to charge of fellow-travelling with the communists. In 1948, he formed his own Progressive Party and ran against Truman for the presidency. He won only 1.2 million votes and carried no state. He retired to continue his agricultural research, and he died in 1965 at the age of 77.